The afterlife (or life after death) is a generic term referring to a continuation of existence, typically spiritual and experiential, beyond this world, or after death

One way that humans have devised for dealing with the tragedy of death and the knowledge of our own mortality is to develop complex visions of what might follow death. Major religions teach the immortality of the soul and put forward an afterlife of reward or punishment; some teach that human souls cycle eternally, life after life. Even though the theories may have many similarities, there are a very few aspects related to death in ancient culture that we could consider as obsolete and horrifying.The idea that there is a weigh for every action, good and evil and that our self doesn’t extinct with our body is at the root of every civilization. Consequently and as Karl Jung wrote: “Rebirth is an affirmation that must be counted among the primordial affirmations of mankind. These primordial affirmations are based on what I call archetypes.“

In the various mythologies, we also find the same recurring themes regarding what occurs after death especially the the weighing of the heart described in the Egyptian and Tibetan Book of the Dead as well as the judgments appearing in later Greek and Christian traditions. It seems to reflect an archetypal reality that is present in the deep consciousness of many cultures.

It is impossible to base an airtight argument for survival after death upon cultural traditions, apparitions, near death experience, mediumship, possession, cross-correspondences, reincarnation, or xenoglossy -- either individually or in combination. Nevertheless as one investigates the extraordinary depths of the human personality which are illustrated in the range of well-documented survival material, it does become apparent that events and processes do occur which seem to challenge all of our conceptions.

References

E. A. Wallis Budge, The Egyptian Book of the Dead. New York: Dover, 1967, pp. lviii-lxx. A classic. 

E. A. Wallis Budge, Osiris: the Egyptian Religion of Resurrection. New Hyde Park, New York: University Books, 1961. First published in 1911. 

W. Y. Evans-Wentz, The Tibetan Book of the Dead. London: Oxford University Press, 1960. The text contains commentaries by Carl Jung, Lama Anagarika Govinda, & Sir John Woodroffe. 

Timothy Leary, Richard Alpert & Ralph Metzner, The Psychedelic Experience.

W. Y. Evans-Wentz, Tibet's Great Yogi, Milarepa. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958.

Sir William Crookes, "Notes of an Inquiry into the Phenomena called Spiritual," in R. G. Medhurst (ed.), Crookes and the Spirit World. New York: Taplinger, 1972. This volume contains descriptions of Crookes' experiments as well as his replies to his critics.

Nandor Fodor, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science. London: Arthur's Press, 1933, p. 95. Crookes is quoted by Fodor.

Charles Richet, Thirty Years of Psychical Research, trans. by Stanley de Brath. New York: Macmillan, 1923.

Pedro McGregor, The Moon and Two Mountains. London: Souvenir Press, 1966. A first-hand account of spiritualism in Brazil.

F. W. H. Myers, The Human Personality and Its Survival of Bodily Death. New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1954, p. xxix. Originally published in 1903, this book is possibly the greatest classic of psychical research.

Edmund Gurney, F. W. H. Myers & Frank Podmore, Phantasms of the Living. Gainesville, Florida: Scholars' Facsimiles & Reprints, 1970, pp. 163-164. This passage is quoted in Alan Gauld, The Founders of Psychical Research, pp. 165-166.

"Notes on the Evidence Collected by the Society for Phantasms of the Dead," Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, IIII, 1885, pp. 69-150. This information is cited in Gauld, op. cit.

G. N. M. Tyrrell, Apparitions. New Hyde Park, NY: University Books, 1961, pp. 69-70. Originally published in 1953.

Karlis Osis, Deathbed Observations by Physicians and Nurses. New York: Parapsychology Foundation, 1961.

Raymond Moody, Life After Life (#W417), an InnerWork videotape available from Thinking Allowed Productions, 2560 9th Street, # 123, Berkeley, CA 94710.

Nandor Fodor, Encyclopedia of Psychic Science, London: Arthur's Press, 1933, pp. 71-72.

G. N. M. Tyrrell, Science and Psychical Phenomena. New Hyde Park, New York: University Books, 1961, pp. 175-179. The actual quote is from William James in Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research, 28, pp. 117-121.

Sir Oliver Lodge, Raymond or Life and Death. New York: George H. Doran, 1916, p. 90.

Rosalind Heywood, Beyond the Reach of Sense. New York: E. P. Dutton, 1974, p. 118. A researcher as well as a sensitive, Heywood was one of the grand ladies of psychical research.

 J. Head & S. L. Cranston (eds.), Reincarnation: The Phoenix Fire Mystery. New York: Julian Press, 1977.

Jonathan Venn, "Hypnosis and the Reincarnation Hypothesis: A Critical Review and Intensive Case Study," Journal of the American Society for Psychical Research, October 1986, 80(4), 409-426.

Ian Stevenson, Twenty Cases Suggestive of Reincarnation. New York: American Society for Psychical Research, 1966.

Ian Stevenson, "Xenoglossy: A Review and Report of a Case," Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Research, 31, February 1974